SLOTH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sloth mean? 

• SLOTH (noun)
  The noun SLOTH has 3 senses:

1. a disinclination to work or exert yourself

2. any of several slow-moving arboreal mammals of South America and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits

3. apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins)

  Familiarity information: SLOTH used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SLOTH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A disinclination to work or exert yourself

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

sloth; slothfulness

Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):

disinclination; hesitancy; hesitation; indisposition; reluctance (a certain degree of unwillingness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of several slow-moving arboreal mammals of South America and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

sloth; tree sloth

Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):

edentate (primitive terrestrial mammal with few if any teeth; of tropical Central America and South America)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sloth"):

ai; Bradypus tridactylus; three-toed sloth (a sloth that has three long claws on each forefoot and each hindfoot)

Choloepus didactylus; two-toed sloth; unai; unau (relatively small fast-moving sloth with two long claws on each front foot)

Choloepus hoffmanni; two-toed sloth; unai; unau (a sloth of Central America that has two long claws on each forefoot and three long claws on each hindfoot)

Holonyms ("sloth" is a member of...):

Bradypodidae; family Bradypodidae (a family of edentates comprising the true sloths)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

acedia; laziness; sloth

Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):

deadly sin; mortal sin (an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace)

 Context examples 

The scientists measured the daily energy expenditure of both two- and three-toed sloths, animals that co-exist in the tropical forest canopies of Central and South America.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)

He would then say, with a peculiar smile, more solemn than cheerful—And if I let a gust of wind or a sprinkling of rain turn me aside from these easy tasks, what preparation would such sloth be for the future I propose to myself?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It argues that some Ice Age megafauna—which in North America include the woolly mammoth, saber-toothed cat and giant sloth—used ancient Tibet as a training ground for developing adaptations that allowed them to cope with a harsh climate.

("Out of Tibet" hypothesis: Cradle of evolution for cold-adapted mammals is in Tibet, NSF)

Of animal life there was no movement amid the majestic vaulted aisles which stretched from us as we walked, but a constant movement far above our heads told of that multitudinous world of snake and monkey, bird and sloth, which lived in the sunshine, and looked down in wonder at our tiny, dark, stumbling figures in the obscure depths immeasurably below them.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I told him “we fed on a thousand things which operated contrary to each other; that we ate when we were not hungry, and drank without the provocation of thirst; that we sat whole nights drinking strong liquors, without eating a bit, which disposed us to sloth, inflamed our bodies, and precipitated or prevented digestion; that prostitute female Yahoos acquired a certain malady, which bred rottenness in the bones of those who fell into their embraces; that this, and many other diseases, were propagated from father to son; so that great numbers came into the world with complicated maladies upon them; that it would be endless to give him a catalogue of all diseases incident to human bodies, for they would not be fewer than five or six hundred, spread over every limb and joint—in short, every part, external and intestine, having diseases appropriated to itself. To remedy which, there was a sort of people bred up among us in the profession, or pretence, of curing the sick. And because I had some skill in the faculty, I would, in gratitude to his honour, let him know the whole mystery and method by which they proceed.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Tree sloths are among the most emblematic tree-dwelling mammals.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)

By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair: that as for himself, being not of an enterprising spirit, he was content to go on in the old forms, to live in the houses his ancestors had built, and act as they did, in every part of life, without innovation: that some few other persons of quality and gentry had done the same, but were looked on with an eye of contempt and ill-will, as enemies to art, ignorant, and ill common-wealth’s men, preferring their own ease and sloth before the general improvement of their country.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But the slow-motion lifestyle of tree sloths, according to a new study, is a direct result of the animals' adaptation to their arboreal niche.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)

Tree sloths require specialized limb adaptations, reduced body mass, a slow metabolic rate and claws that act like fulcrums — hooks to accommodate the animals' need to hang onto and traverse treetops.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)

A diet of plant leaves has little nutritional value and that the animals' gut size limits them to small amounts per day, so sloths need to find ways to make the most of their skimpy diets.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)